Will Americans Fight for Globalism?

 From American Greatness:

It also shouldn’t be necessary to debate moral distinctions. Gaza, Lebanon under Hezbollah, and Iran, are all ruled by ruthless Islamic extremists. Syria and Russia are corrupt and brutal dictatorships. China is a fascist ethno-state. Whatever Israel and America’s shortcomings may be, they don’t begin to rise to the level of oppression of these rivals.

During the Cold War, when memories of the 2nd World War were still relatively fresh in the minds of Americans, that sort of moral argument was enough. We weren’t perfect, but the Soviets, who had to build a 4,000 mile long fence to keep millions of their most talented subjects from migrating to Western nations, were obviously much worse. That moral distinction got us through the Korean War, and though more fitfully, it got us through the Vietnam War. And then it was enough to justify massive defense spending during the Reagan years. Ultimately, this containment doctrine worked. In 1989 an exhausted Soviet Union dissolved and the Iron Curtain came down.

Today, though it shouldn’t be, it is necessary to revisit all these premises. To begin with, the American people have changed. When the Cold War began, 90 percent of Americans were of various European descent, and the conflicts of the early 20th century had a unifying impact on the culture, erasing much of the bitterness left over from the Civil War as well as most of the tribal animosities their families might have brought with them from Europe. That has all changed. (Read more.)

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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

 After seeing the film I just had to read David Gann's book. It was utterly intriguing. From The Nation:

In early 1925, British Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, having convinced himself, based on a mix of archival research, deduction and clairvoyance, that a large undiscovered city lay hidden somewhere in the Amazon, entered the jungle to try to find it. The word “quixotic” has its origins in a story set on the Spanish plains, in the same century when Europeans were first entering South America’s vast, seemingly unending rainforest. Since then, the adjective has often been applied to those like Fawcett–explorers entranced by the promise of riches or fame, as assured in their quests as the Man of La Mancha was that the windmills he tilted at were giants. “I call it Z,” wrote Fawcett of his fabled metropolis, “for the sake of convenience.”

Fawcett, his son Jack and another companion were never heard from again, but their disappearance prompted a parade of would-be rescuers. With the US frontier closed, Africa carved up and the British Empire at its widest girth, “the big blank spaces in the map,” as a character says in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, based partly on Fawcett’s earlier travels, were “all being filled in, and there’s no room for romance anywhere”–except for the opportunity to reprise Stanley’s feat and find a lost Victorian. By 1933 so many film crews, reporters and adventurers were converging on the Amazon in the hunt for the Fawcett party that the Brazilian government, to avoid having to save yet another writer looking for material or Hollywood actor hoping for publicity, put an embargo on future trips. (Read more.)

 And there was indeed a lost city, but not exactly as Fawcett pictured. From Scientific American:

In 1925 British adventurer Colonel Percy Fawcett disappeared into the wilds of the Amazon, never to be heard from again after going there in search of a lost city he called Z. But decades later, a city of sorts—actually a series of settlements connected by roads—has been found at the headwaters of the Xingu River where Fawcett went missing in an area previously buried beneath the dense foliage in what is now Xingu National Park.

Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida teamed with the local Kuikuro people in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to uncover 28 towns, villages and hamlets that may have supported as many as 50,000 people within roughly 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) of forest—an area slightly smaller than New Jersey. The larger towns boasted defensive ditches 10 feet (three meters) deep and 33 feet (10 meters) wide backed by a wooden palisade as well as large plazas, some reaching 490 feet (150 meters) across.

The remains of houses and ceramic cooking utensils show that humans occupied these cities for around 1,000 years, from roughly 1,500 years to as recently as 400 years ago. Satellite pictures reveal that during that time, the inhabitants carved roads through the jungle; all plaza villages had a major road that ran northeast to southwest along the summer solstice axis and linked to other settlements as much as three miles (five kilometers) away. There were bridges on some of the roads and others had canoe canals running alongside them.

The remains of the settlements also hint at surrounding large fields of manioc, or cassava (a starchy root that is still a staple part of the Brazilian diet) as well as the earthen dams and artificial ponds of fish farming, still practiced by people who may be the present-day descendants of the Kuikuro. Although such "garden cities," as Heckenberger describes them in Science, do not match the dense urbanism of contemporary Brazilian metropolises such as Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, they do blend seamlessly into the jungle and maximize use of limited natural resources. They also suggest that the rainforest bears the marks of intense human habitation, rather than being pristine.

But, ultimately, these cities died; most likely a victim of the diseases brought by European explorers in the early 16th century, according to Heckenberger. Two thirds or more of the original human inhabitants of Brazil are believed to have been killed by such disease, and the forest quickly swallowed the cities they left behind.

As a result, later European explorers had no idea that a civilization had once flourished in the Amazon, despite clues in kilometer-long earthworks and unusually fertile so-called terra preta (dark) soil. The 500 or so Kuikuro may have known of their ancestors' exploits—and they may have drawn the attention of Fawcett and other explorers—but only now can the "lost cities" of the Amazon claim to have been found. (Read more.)

More from History vs Hollywood, HERE.

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Ball of Fire (1941)

 

From Tony Esolen at Word and Song:

I’ve always thought that Gary Cooper was tremendously underrated, as people made fun of his straight-arrow slow-talking laconic type, but he was like Ronald Colman in this sense: both of those actors could speak volumes with a look of the face and a movement of the hands. You could give them words, but they didn’t need them. As for Barbara Stanwyck, she makes my top four or five actresses in American film, and she somehow never won an Oscar. But she could do, and she did do, everything. She was brilliant in romantic comedy (Christmas in Connecticut), in screwball comedy (The Lady Eve), in straight-up romance, in melodrama, in film noir (Double Indemnity). Here she steals every scene, or she would, if she weren’t so obviously intent to make everybody around her better for her presence.

There’s nothing quite so charming as watching the beautiful Stanwyck teaching seven clumsy old professors how to do the conga; unless it’s watching those same seven dwarfs, for that is what they are called by one of the mugs, uniting to protect their Snow White against the bad guys, with Cooper, the eighth, at the lead, bouncing about in Marquis of Queensberry style, trying to throw a right cross at the mobster’s nose. For the heart of all screwball comedy is the nuttiness of the sexes, usually with the female running dizzy rings around the male, but the male also a good sensible fellow who ultimately will do anything for her. We know that Sugarpuss O’Shea just has to be together with Professor Bertram Potts. Is that unlikely? If it weren’t for such unlikely things, where would the human race be now? Would there still be a human race at all? (Read more.)

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Civic Irresponsibility

 From American Greatness:

Recently, the Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, released annually to celebrate Constitution Day (Sept. 17), finds that in 2023, 66% of Americans could name all three branches of government, 10% named just two, 7% knew only one, and 17% couldn’t name any. Additionally, when respondents were asked to name the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, 77% named freedom of speech, but just 40% knew that freedom of religion is included, 33% named the right to assembly, 28% knew freedom of the press, and a paltry 9% mentioned the right to petition the government.

The U.S. Dept. of Education certainly is of no help on this matter. Many public schools are being manipulated and infiltrated by state-sponsored non-government organizations that are spreading radical social justice-style activism under the guise of civics. Parent rights activist Tamra Farah reports, “The pack leader is Educating for American Democracy (EAD), which conveniently slipped into schools nationwide in 2021, masquerading as civics. It is routinely introduced to state boards of education as a framework to inform state standards, forcing all lessons and textbooks to conform to its outline for curricula.” EAD urges teachers “to affirm diverse identities and provide inclusive instruction and examples.” This is clearly a nod to the progressive agenda of BLM, CRT, and DEI.

A relentless advocate for civics instruction in American classrooms is Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He points out that a U.S. Citizenship Test has been in place since 1986. The exam consists of 100 questions about American history, our system of government, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Pondiscio explains, “Immigration officials administer the test orally, asking would-be citizens seeking naturalization 10 of the 100 questions; they must answer at least six correctly to pass. The questions aren’t particularly difficult. They consist of things like naming any one of the three branches of government, how many U.S. senators there are, and naming a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment. Rock-bottom, basic stuff.”

Interestingly, while 96% of immigrants seeking naturalization pass the test, a 2018 survey revealed that just 13% of Americans at large knew when the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Amazingly, a majority couldn’t say which countries the U.S. fought in World War II, and only one in four could say why American colonists fought a war against Great Britain. Importantly, older Americans did better, with 74% answering at least six in 10 questions correctly. Pondiscio notes, “But among those under the age of 45, only one in five passes, which says a lot about the state of civics in U.S. schools, whose founding purpose once upon a time was to prepare the citizenry for self-government.”

Today, civic education is more important than ever because of the impact social media has on us. Memes can go viral in a matter of seconds, while the time-honored tradition of slogging through books to become learned has become passé. And clearly, it is not only K-12 that is failing our students. So much of the problem belongs with our colleges, and can be seen when comparing Democratic and Republican voter registration among faculty by academic discipline. In his 2016 study, Brooklyn College professor Mitchell Langbert found that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans at 40 leading U.S. universities was 4.5:1 in economics, 8.6:1 in law, and 33.5:1 in history. His 2018 study, with a different sample, found that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans was 5.5:1 in economics, 8.2:1 in political science, and 17.4:1 in history. While it is certainly not incumbent upon professors to put their personal politics on the table, all too often these days, they do, which results in indoctrinated students.

The recent Hamas-induced atrocities perpetrated on Israel provide an instructive point about our colleges. Immediately after Jewish women were abducted, raped, and murdered and their children brutalized and killed, countless college students and professors across the country cheered. At Harvard, 34 student groups pledged their support to Hamas. At UCLA, right after the onset of the invasion, professors gave extra credit for attending a “teach-in” pushing anti-Israel propaganda. In New York, the president of NYU’s Student Bar Association wrote that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” (Read more.)

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Mysteries at Althorp's Roman Villa

 The Countess has the most wonderful and instructive videos. From Spencer 1508:

As the exploration of the Roman Villa at Althorp continues, the archaeologists are learning more about those who once lived there. The Roman artefacts that Adey has discovered; the underfloor heating that Dr. Siân Thomas has identified; the chunks of imported wine vessels that Dr Cat Jarman has catalogued - all are important clues as to how the Romans lived at Althorp, more than 1,600 years ago. Meanwhile, Charles makes a discovery that helps Professor Mark Horton to understand why so much of this once massive villa is missing.

Watch video, HERE.

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Items You Should Always Buy at Flea Markets

 

From Veranda:

We totally understand the appeal of purchasing a new objet d’art or falling in love with a chic piece at a designer showroom, but you have to admit that there’s something undeniably addictive about finding a one-of-a-kind item at a secondhand store. You can buy vintage decor all over these days, from specialized websites to your local antique store, but going to a flea market can bring about so many possibilities to find a dream item that you wouldn’t be able to anywhere else—not to mention, it can save you a pretty penny in the process!

“Flea markets require the patience of sifting, but the rewards of a special find can make the effort well worth it,” says Ksenya Malina, principal at Time & Place Interiors. “Visiting a flea market also makes for a fun pastime, whether it's a hobby to keep up in your own city or a way to explore new places during your travels.” You can also find more affordable, unique options at flea markets—particularly vintage finds that haven’t gone through the whole examination process that secondhand stores require.

While this means you might have to examine your new item a bit more closely, it also gives you the opportunity to find some hidden gems at bargain prices—and designers know this. We asked the experts to tell us the categories that they never skimp on when they plan a trip to the flea market, and they were quick to deliver on their favorites. Below, check out the seven items designers say you should always buy at flea markets. (Read more.)

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Regurgitating Hamas Propaganda

 From The Federalist:

Before changing the headline (twice) The New York Times declared, “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say.” The Wall Street Journal also called it a “strike,” without any evidence beyond the say-so of a terrorist regime that 10 days earlier had butchered more than 1,000 civilians, raping women and decapitating babies. Nearly every major news organization did something similar.

By nightfall in the Middle East, angry mobs assaulted the embassies and military bases of Israel, the United States, and other Western powers. The streets of Baghdad, Istanbul, Beirut, Amman, Doha, Tehran, Cairo, Rabat, and even some European cities like Berlin and Barcelona were filled with hordes of enraged Hamas sympathizers who believed (and now will always believe) that Israel struck the hospital. The fake news cycle even derailed President Biden’s trip to the region. Jordan abruptly canceled a planned summit with the United States, Egypt, and Palestinian leaders while Biden was en route. It also placed American lives in real danger.

By Wednesday morning, it was clear that nothing the media initially reported was true. Israel didn’t fire a missile at the hospital, and hundreds of people weren’t killed. Instead, it appears that a Palestinian rocket misfired and landed in the parking lot of the hospital complex. In the light of day, video footage of the site showed no impact crater consistent with an airstrike, and most of the nearby hospital buildings intact.

So what happened here? This was an info op, a deliberate campaign to alter the narrative of the Israel-Hamas war and inflame the Muslim world. Perhaps a billion people or more are now convinced beyond all doubt that Israel bombed a hospital and killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

We have seen this kind of op before, many times. In every case, it’s designed to serve the domestic interests of the progressive left. In this case, the purpose was to constrain Israel’s response to last weekend’s horrific Hamas attacks on innocent Israeli civilians. That, by the way, is the actual purpose of Biden’s trip to the Middle East, where he’ll be “asking tough questions as a friend of Israel,” according to the administration. Translation: Israel is to stand down now. The credible threat of unconstrained mob violence across the Middle East, directed at Western targets, will do much to advance this goal. Indeed it already has. (Read more.)

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The First People in the Americas

 From Live Science:

During the last ice age, humans ventured into two vast and completely unknown continents: North and South America. For nearly a century, researchers thought they knew how this wild journey occurred: The first people to cross the Bering Land Bridge, a massive swath of land that connected Asia with North America when sea levels were lower, were the Clovis, who made the journey shortly before 13,000 years ago. According to the Clovis First theory, every Indigenous person in the Americas could be traced to this single, inland migration, said Loren Davis, a professor of anthropology at Oregon State University. But in recent decades, several discoveries have revealed that humans first reached the so-called New World thousands of years before we initially thought and probably didn't get there by an inland route.

So who were the first Americans, and how and when did they arrive?

Genetic studies suggest that the first people to arrive in the Americas descend from an ancestral group of Ancient North Siberians and East Asians that mingled around 20,000 to 23,000 years ago. They crossed the Bering Land Bridge sometime between then and 15,500 years ago, said David Meltzer, an archaeologist and professor of prehistory in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and author of the book "First Peoples in a New World, 2nd Edition" (Cambridge University Press, 2021). But some archaeological sites hint that people may have reached the Americas far earlier than that.

For instance, there are fossilized human footprints in White Sands National Park in New Mexico that may date to 21,000 to 23,000 years ago. That would mean humans arrived in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which occurred between about 26,500 to 19,000 years ago, when ice sheets covered much of what is now Alaska, Canada and the northern U.S. Other, more equivocal data suggest the first people arrived in the Western Hemisphere by 25,000 or even 31,500, years ago. If these dates can be confirmed, they would paint a much more complex picture of how and when humans reached the Americas. (Read more.)

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Biden Admits Terrorism Threats In America Are Up

From The Federalist:

Hama’s “global day of rage” prompted terrorist attacks and anti-Israel demonstrations not just in France, China, Jordan, Iran, and Italy, but also in states like Washington and California. In addition to the Iranian spies who made their way into the Biden administration and the terrorist sleeper cells already embedded in U.S. cities, foreign incendiaries who wish ill on Americans can literally walk right into the U.S. via our compromised Southern border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources confirmed to Fox News on Monday that two of the Iranians caught sneaking across the Southern border in the last month were pinned as “raising red flags that they could pose a significant security threat.” Their information was later located in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). The capture is not the least bit surprising to border officials who, since October 2022, arrested nearly 160 illegal border crossers whose information was found on the TSDB. The Department of Homeland Security even admitted last week that “[t]errorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States” via its open Southern border. Yet, Biden has no plans to stymie the border crisis created by his commitment to undo Trump-era security policies. On the contrary, the Democrat has repeatedly reinforced that he does not care to stop the collapse of the Southern border. (Read more.) 

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